Frippicisms from Robert Fripp

Advice from a Happy Gigster: Assumption of Virtue
Life is hard, and we all do the best we can. Perhaps we have unhappy thoughts, and feel bad about ourselves. The important point for us, is that we act in a positive and cheerful fashion with others. This is a form of the Assumption of Virtue. It is extremely difficult to smile and say we are feeling well, when we are not. But other people have their own difficulties: let us not add to them! And, if we act cheerfully, this may inhabit our feelings.

Music is the cup which holds the wine of silence. Sound is that cup, but empty. Noise is that cup, but broken.

A recognizable characteristic of mastery: everything is meaningful; alternatively expressed, nothing is arbitrary.

4 Levels of Performance: Presenting and Performance
creation (genius)
innovation (master)
renovation (professional)
novelty (journeyman)

Courtesy is an inward grace, which extends outwards to others.

Equilibrium is not static.

Expectation closes the door to what is happening in the moment.

Our understanding changes what is that we understand.

Performance is a vehicle for entering different worlds of experiencing.

The science is in knowing; the art is in perceiving.

The future is what the present can bear.

We recognize in others what we know most deeply in ourselves.

Anything within a performance is significant, whether intentional or not.

Don't be helpful: be available.

Just below the surface of our everyday world lie riches.

Necessity is a measure of aim.

Right action moves from principle.

Playing fast is easier than playing slow.

With craft the musician can copy something old.With discipline the musician may copy something new.

Life is too short to take on the unnecessary.

Three ways to discover our faults: ask a friend; ask an enemy; recognize a fault in others.

The performer can hide nothing, even the attempt to hide.

Everything we are is revealed in our playing.

Necessity is never far from what is real.

Good habit is necessary; bad habit is inevitable.

If in doubt, consult tradition. If still in doubt, consult your experience. If still in doubt, consult your body.

Let us embrace our mistakes as friends and teachers.

Music so wishes to be heard that it calls on some to give it voice and some to give it ears.

Music is a powerful and direct teacher which speaks to us all, to the degree that we are able to hear.

Silence is a bridge between worlds.

We have the right to choose our form of suffering.

The science is in knowing, the art in perceiving.

The presence of absence is an entry into loss.

Act with courtesy.
Otherwise, be polite.
Act in accordance with time, place and person.

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

Money is not a problem, only a difficulty.

A test of our understanding is whether we can apply it in practice.
Action begins when we cease to concern ourselves with being effective.
A test of our understanding is whether we can apply it in practice.

The foundation of learning is play.

A principle is universal.
A rule is specific.
A law is invariable.

Before we do something, we do nothing.

Expectation is a prison.

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable, and never acceptable.

We may do whatever we like, providing we can pay the bill.

Act in accordance with time, place and person.

The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world.
How we think of our world directs how we interpret our world.
How we interpret our world governs how we participate in it.
How we participate in the world shapes the world.

There are few things as convincing as death to remind us of the quality with which we live our life.

The advent of lawyers into business affairs is the death of flexibility; and has increased the adversarial approach to negotiation.

When a legal system fails to provide justice, people will seek their own remedies outside the process of law. This is inevitable, necessary and dangerous. Better then that those within the legal system see that their responsibility towards the living body politic, and address that responsibility.

The quality of our perceptions determines the quality of our judgment. Our judgment determines how we interact with the world. How we interact with the world changes the world. Therefore, the quality of our perceptions changes the world we perceive.

If I name myself, I recognize who I am. By recognizing who I am, I am becoming myself.

In our actions we reveal the world in which we live. We speak of what we see, and understand, and know. That is, everything we do is reflective of who and what we are. A musician presents a view from the world in which they live. This provides an opportunity for an audience to look into this world. Similarly a reviewer reviews himself or herself.

Reviewer reviews himself or herself by presenting the extent of their understanding.

When a record company makes a mistake, the artist pays for it. When the artist makes a mistake, the artist pays for it.

The artist has one career.
The manager has as many careers as they have artists.
The record company has as many careers as it has artists.

An honest society is an ordered society.
An ordered society is an efficient society.
An efficient society is a richer society.
A richer society may invest in itself and support a poorer society.

Any action carries repercussions. Active and creative interaction and involvement with anything carries active and creative repercussions. Things are not as they were before. They have changed. Therefore, if we approach a living, creative,intelligent "object" a second time and expect it to be the same, we will not see or understand it - it is not the same. So, to see it"again", we will have to see it not only "as if for the first time" but in actuality for the first time, because it has not been like this before.

So, we can never reach a Final Understanding of anything because it will change as we develop understanding. If we did reach a Final Understanding, simultaneously the "subject" would have changed, rendering our FU as past tense, and no longer final!

Complex fields of intelligence, to enter our world, that is to become more fully real by becoming more fully part of the totality of worlds, need people to anchor the points between which the field of intelligence can dwell and operate. Not so much in people, as between them. In a sense, a group is giving birth to an angel by providing its "spirit" or "intelligence" a framework to inhabit.

4 ways to keep a speech fresh depending on your experience: creation (genius) innovation (master) renovation (professional) maintenance (mechanic).